More Beautiful BYU Basketball Stats

I previously wrote about some amazing conference stats. Here’s some of those same stats compared nationally:

The statistics offer plenty of evidence: BYU is first in the country in free-throw percentage, third in scoring margin, fourth in field-goal percentage, 24th in field-goal percentage defense and seventh in scoring offense. The Cougars are in the top 100 in all 18 statistical categories kept by the NCAA, and in the top 50 in 15 of them. -source

That same article says the reason they’re doing so well this year is because of their defense. I won’t argue that the defense isn’t better. However, I think the real improvement this year is the free throw shooting. Chris Miles deserves a TON of credit for his improvement in free throw shooting. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a big man improve his free throw shooting this much this quickly. I seem to remember it taking Karl Malone about 5 years to improve his free throw shooting. Not only does his improvement in free throw shooting mean more points on the board, but it also means that the other teams defense can’t just hack away at our big men.